n

n

nSlowly Eldrian raised his head and looked at Vivian, only to be captured by her eyes again. He found himself unable to focus, losing himself when looking into them. Shaking his head he kept telling himself to just act normally. Naturally, that did nothing.

nHow could he act naturally now that he was reminded of the biggest fact. That she was a female, and a beautiful one at that. He had actually forgotten, or rather, suppressed this key fact. It had happened naturally as they had trained and fought together. Now with that veil lifted, Eldrian had no idea how to bring it back.

nTaking a deep breath he tried to calm down. Vivian having long since found that there was something strange going on. After Eldrian glanced at her again, unable to hold eye contact, she could no longer ignore it.

n

"Just what is going on today?

"

n

"Ah... I...

" Eldrian scratched his head as he wondered how to replied. Should he just come out and say he suddenly realized she was pretty. No! That would be dumb, she'd laugh at me. He thought, quickly denying that too, as she wasn't that mean. Or is she?

nSeeing him fiddling Vivian became even more confused, and slightly upset.

"Come on, explain what's going on. What happened?

"

n

"Um... The thing is...

" Eldrian paused, slowly raised his eyes to match hers, and took a deep breath.

"I can't...

" He sighed as he thought that bringing this up would just complicate things. He should rather just keep training and place all his focus into that. Yet it was already too late for that. Things were already more complicated now.

n

"What?

" Vivian pressed, becoming really upset at him for keeping something hidden, especially when it was bothering him so much.

n

"Just... Just drop it.

" Eldrian mumbled as he filled his mouth with a spoon of soup, along with a massive piece of bread. Nearly causing him to choke, but giving him a good reason to not respond for some time.

n

"Then stop avoiding the topic. Why are you acting so weird?

" Vivian pressed, playing with her spoon. Refusing to eat until she got a satisfactory answer.

n

"Can we just ignore it? It is going to make things awkward.

" Eldrian replied after struggling to clear his throat of the food he had stuffed in.

n

"It already made things awkward, why can't you talk to me as you normally do?

" Vivian asked and Eldrian sighed.

nHe sighed as he realized that what she just said was true. Just having the memories and emotions brought up had already changed things. Taking another deep breath he decided to say something stupid, hopefully, Vivian wouldn't beat him up too much about it.

n

"I just realized something... Something I half wish I didn't realize.

" He paused as he knew what he was going to say was going to sound really dumb.

"The thing is... Your really pretty.

"

nHearing his confession Vivian froze, the spoon in her hand slowly sliding from her grip as she looked at Eldrian in complete shock. Clank!

n

"What the hell do you mean?

" Vivian nearly shouted after her spoon hit the table, the sound had woken her from her daze.

n

"I... I just realized it some time ago. And well, now I can't look at you like I used to.

" Eldrian replied, not knowing what the hell he was doing.

n

"Wait! What do you mean by that!?

" Vivian actually shouted this time.

n

"Don't get the wrong idea.

" Eldrian rushed to explain, both having completely forgotten about their food and location.

"I used to see you as a partner in arms. A fellow soldier, a sparring partner... But now.

"

n

"But now what?

" Vivian questioned.

n

"It's just, I realized. That you're a girl.

" As soon as the words left his mouth he knew that wasn't right, but it was really what he had realized. He had no idea how else to explain it to her.

n

"What do you mean!? Did you not see me as a girl before?

" Vivian asked, flabbergasted and nearly left without words. All she could do was ask questions as her mind spun, completely caught off guard by the words coming from Eldrian. Her own emotions also making everything much more complicated.

n

"No, nonono. Not at all. It's just... I didn't really realize...

"

n

"What the hell is wrong with you?

" Vivian shouted and rushed to leave, Eldrian standing up just a few seconds later and rushed after her.

n

"Stop following me!

" She shouted, extremely angry. Eldrian wondering if it was the girl part that was the tipping point, or if this was all just destined to be.

n

"Then give me a chance to explain it better!

" Eldrian shouted back, quickly catching up to her. Only to end up on the ground as she threw him over her shoulder.

"Hey wait, give me a chance...

"

nEldrian couldn't finish his sentence as a fist nearly connected with his mouth. Luckily his body had reacted and brought his hands to catch her fist. This time, different from all the other times, Eldrian was all too aware of her feminine hand. Holding her hand caused him to start blushing, even though there should be no emotional feelings as he was actually holding a fist.

nThis angered Vivian even more, so she threw another punch. Yet her doing so caused her clothes to rathel and swing and Eldrian's eyes to see things he hoped not to see, or maybe somewhere deep down he did. This caused the opposite to happen from what Vivian wanted.

nEldrian became shyer and shyer, his face redder and redder. Until finally she even realized he had grown downstairs. This became extremely clear as she was pinning him down with her body.

nUnable to stand it any longer and she rushed off before Eldrian could say another word. His body too battered to get up quickly enough, so he lost sight of her.

n

"Fuck! That went as bad as it could.

" Eldrian cursed as he stood up and started smacking the mud off his back. He also realized just how bad this was, normally he could fight with Vivian without any problems. Now there were a bunch of problems.

nTaking another deep breath he wanted to rush after her again, but he didn't know where she had gone. So instead he returned to where he was staying, with Ayden. Though he was not in the mood for continuing his studies.

nSitting absentmindedly on his bed he wondered what he said that threw her over the top. He was quite confident it was when he said he realized she was a girl. Though it might have been from when he said she was pretty.

nHe kept replaying what happened, and somehow his mind kept lingering to when she was beating him outside. Always causing a smile to grow, as that was the Vivian he knew.

nHe also mocked himself that this was precisely why he shouldn't have let this happen. Now not only didn't he know what was going on in Vivian's mind, he also had no presence of mind to do the practice he needed to do.

nWith a sigh, he logged out. Nearly falling off the chair as he was used to waking on his bed, his mind was nowhere close to stable. Grasping the handrailing with a burst of adrenaline Eldrian made a mental note to tell Joren that he needed to add more side supports.

n...

n

"Athtar, did you really need to call us all?

" A female human asked, her clothing see-through yet not at the same time. They emitted a light that would blind anyone who dared look at her without respect.

n

"Yes Agatha, this invasion isn't like those before. Most of you have lived through at least one, so you know how cruel they can be. They are what caused you to be who you are now. Imagine what will happen if it doesn't end.

" Athtar, the elven Emperor replied calmly.

nCurrently, they were gathered on one of the floating gardens. Just shy of forty people, all of whom had a very specific and strange look. A look many people would connect to a god, but they were no gods. Though if they were still mortal was a good question to ask.

n

"What do you mean?

" Asked a dryad male, he wore no clothes but it did not mean he was nude. Somehow the winds would cover his private parts, the normal patterns of the dryads constantly ebbing and flowing filled with energy.

n

"We could afford to not care before, simply because the damage would almost never reach the empires. And certainly not Ahevell. This time, if we do nothing, I am certain Ahevell will enter the war for the first time since my grandfather.

" Athtar explained, most unable to accept what he said. It sounded too insane to them, but they knew they were far more out of the loop than Athtar.

n

"So then, why did you ask us to gather?

" Asked a moon elf, his pure white beard nearly reaching his knees.

n

"Because we must act. I know I can't command you to fight, but I implore you to go support an empire of your choice. If we don't act, then we will stand alone. And alone we can not survive... We already own too little land compared to our enemies.

"

n